Ethanol-Maker Offered $6.3M For 65 Fuel Plant Jobs

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A company says it will hire 65 workers and invest $200 million in a next-generation ethanol plant that will turn grasses grown on North Carolina hog farms into motor fuel.

Gov. Pat McCrory on Monday announced the decision by Biochemtex, a partnership headed by Italy-based Gruppo Mossi & Ghisolfi. The state Commerce Department says the company was offered state and local government incentives worth $6.3 million over six years.

The Biochemtex plant near Clinton in Sampson County will convert high-energy grass varieties into millions of gallons of ethanol a year. It is a new type of ethanol plant that uses non-food plants instead of corn or other food grains.

The plant imitates the world's first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, which the company opened in northwestern Italy in October.